OUGD504 STUDIO BRIEF ONE - DEVELOPMENT, REFINEMENT AND MOCK UPS

Following on from the feedback I received from the previous session, I took this advice into consideration when producing the rest of my leaflet and developing my initial designs.

This is my new illustration for the development stage of my leaflet which was originally a simple sun drawing going into a more complex one. I didn't think this reflected the development process very clearly, so I created this geometric joining the dots design which I though better showed one object or series of ideas developing and growing into something more elaborate and with greater depth. 

I was struggling with drawing the printer for the production stage using the pen tool straight onto Illustrator, so I photographed my sketch and uploaded it onto Illustrator and simply traced it, which I am a lot happier with, as I think it looks more accurate and the measurements and scale are more precise. 

Thinking about one piece if feedback I got which was to think about what message I want to portray, I decided I wanted to show the different emotions felt at each stage, for example you start off calm when you get the brief and everything gradually get more crazy and full towards the end of the project, which I tried to reflect in the colours by using calm colours at the start such as blue and green, and more aggressive, powerful colours towards the end such as purple and red. I think this shows the emotions felt during the design process clearly, however I think it looks too much like a rainbow, and the colours don't mix nicely together at all, such as the purple and red at the end contrasting awfully.

I wanted to clearly show the different stages of the design process, so I tried using alternating two colours to keep the colour to a minimum, however I feel this just makes it look like a circus tent, and the colours don't really reflect anything from the design process.

I decided I wanted to show a calmer side to the design process by using a mint green shade throughout the leaflet, but again starting off with a lighter shade and building up to a darker tone to show the building of ideas and starting off calm again and gradually becoming more work. I think this colour idea works, as it looks a lot more sophisticated, however it does look very green, and people could mistake it for something to do with the environment, as green is often associated with sustainability.

This is the leaflet that inspired my colour choices for the below few experimentations. I really liked the colours shown in this leaflet as it looks very earthy and natural, with the yellow and beige shades, the turquoise highlighting key aspects. When the leaflet is folded together, the front cover is very aesthetically appealing with three colours being visible that all compliment one another. I thought this layering of colours could be interesting in my leaflet when it is folded together as well.

These are the colours I applied to my own leaflet, which clearly define each stage of the design process, however look very calm and natural like this is a natural process you go through. I included the "continuous feedback" text along the top of the leaflet, tracing the Fira Sans typeface as I had done for the title of the leaflet, maintaining that hand written effect, working well with the illustrations. 

I thought the "continuous feedback" text look a bit out of place all on one line, so I centrally aligned it on two lines, which I feel works a lot better against the arrows that extend from each side.

I wanted the different coloured effect to reflect on the title page, so I created stripes across it, however I think this looks amateur and very forced, and makes the title page blend into the rest of the leaflet, where I want it to stand out.

I created the title page white as I thought this stood out nicely from the other colours, but complimented them as well. The tab I produced in the same colour as the page it will fold into so that everything blends together. I produced the title text in black with the same colour as the tab underline, to highlight some of the colours used within the leaflet.

I took the illustrations from the leaflet content and arranged them in such a way so that when you selected all of them and copied them, the second copy fit neatly into the first, creating a repeat pattern.

This is the repeat pattern I created to go along the back of the leaflet, as I wanted some sort of imagery on the back that still reflected the content of the leaflet. I thought this would be a fun and simple way to create a pattern that was interesting and informative at the same time. I also thought it fitted in with the appearance of the front side of my leaflet, not too serious, but still hand drawn and fun.

Mock up
After the previous designs I had created I decided to print them off in the digital print room, to see how my designs have worked when I can see them on paper and printed double sided.

Printing in the digital print room down stairs there was only one kind of stock available to me that could be printed on double sided, which was a heavy 250gsm matte white stock. This wasn't the ideal stock for me to use, and had I been prepared for printing I would of found a different stock from somewhere in Leeds or the library. Because of this heavier stock and my design itself, when I folded the leaflet together it didn't match up with each stage and each block of colour, because when I folded the stock, it increases slightly in size each time because it's a wrap around fold. This is something I should of considered but didn't in my rush to print it off before the final feedback session. As you can see in this photograph the fab doesn't even reach the edge of the leaflet, let along wrap around it. I also don't like the way the illustrations appear when folded up, as the different stages aren't very clear, and the illustrations aren't dense enough for this to be clear.

I am pleased with the fully opened out appearance, and think I have gotten the text and illustration size just right, however I am not sure about the orange/beige shades as I think they look a bit too brown against the rich teal colour I have also used. 

This is the back of my leaflet when I am pleased with as well. I chose to create the illustrations in the same teal colour as in the main part of the leaflet as I thought this would create a good link to the content of the leaflet, and wasn't as hard as black, it's a much more soothing colour. I don't think the illustrations are too large either, even though when folded up you can't clearly see a whole illustration which made it hard to define each section, when folded out they look just the right size.

This is the leaflet half folded up, where you can see both the content and the back cover illustrations, which works really nicely together, as the white back cover contrasts highlights the colour int he information part. You can also see on the title page where there is no colour on the tab when there is supposed to be, but the coloured part was moved across to the right hand side of the title page. This is discovered was because when I produced the file, I created the tab so it extended out from the artboard, and because I hadn't included a bleed, it wasn't printed properly but just moved so it was on the document anywhere. This is something I should definitely be aware of in the future to ensure I don't have future incidences like this one, where it could be more crucial and closer to module submissions where I wouldn't have time to reprint like I do now.

After this mock up issue with spacing and folding, I decided to try changing the layout of colours, so instead of each colour being clearly defined during each stage, the colours were a gradient instead, which would allow for more flexibility of spacing when folding the document up. In theory I think this is a good idea, however I don't think this gradient is very aesthetically appealing when unfolded so you can see the whole ting fully. 

To try and get the different stages to show more clearly when the leaflet is folded up, I created a gradient on the illustrations on the back cover, going from teal to beige, to see if when folded the different sections are more clearly defined. I didn't want to put a gradient or striped colours on the back as I thought this was a bit too harsh of a definition, and would look too similar to the content of the leaflet. 

More mock up's

I printed out the gradient design on the laser printers in the studio to see if it looked any better when printed out, and I think it somehow manages to look worse, as the gradient isn't smooth like it was on screen. The use of a gradient as well looks as if it's not doing it's job properly in showing off each stage, because there are no clear boundaries.

When I folded up the leaflet, when it was only printed on standard printer paper, I also found that it didn't fold up right despite the high decrease in gsm in the stock I used to previously. As you can see here the fold overlaps some of the information on the first stage.

This is a gradient printed out on the back of the leaflet, where instead I opted for beige to teal instead of the other way around as I thought the beige would blend in more with the beige stage that is visible when it is still fully closed. However when it is opened it does look very beige and the illustrations aren't that clear either because of how light the colours are.

When folded up the stages are a lot clearer due to the gradient I applied, although still not that clear compared to what it would be if block colours were used.